A SHORT-TERM, FAMILY-ORIENTED, CHILD AND ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRIC INPATIENT TREATMENT PROGRAM

We describe a short-term inpatient treatment program whose purpose is to Integrate the different interventions in the child, his or her fami ly, and the outpatient professional network. The interaction between t he family and the ward is the basic structural element of child psychi atric inpatient treatment. The child, the family, the professional out patient network, and the ward community together form an extended ther apeutic system. Inpatient treatment can be understood as a coevolving process between these systems. The essential feature in our working mo del is the continuous, daily nursing staff supervision and a focus on interactions in the extended therapeutic system.